Sexual Dysfunctions

Abstract

This chapter presents a selective survey of behavioral and medical phenomena that through their interaction impact on the field of human sexuality. It points out major areas of concern to interested professionals and highlights certain points of overlap between medicine and the behavioral sciences. The chapter begins with a discussion of some of the assumptions and definitions that underlie the material on sexual dysfunctions. The dichotomy, organic versus psychogenic, is often proposed to separate sexual disorders into distinct categories. Dysfunction in its most general sense refers to interference with the typical, desired, or biological role of some phenomena. The definition of sexual dysfunction must include a recognition than problems can exist in one or more aspects of sexual behavior. An interactional model insists that influences upon sexuality cannot be compartmentalized into independent factors.